About Bounce

Bounce is the discovery and booking marketplace for racket sports, helping players find clinics, leagues, tournaments, open play, lessons, social events, and courts in one place. We help clubs and coaches grow by driving player demand, improving discoverability, and creating new ways for people to get on court.

We are activating cities by combining marketplace supply, local community growth, city newsletters, and Bounce-owned inventory — recurring programs like beginner clinics, social play, youth clinics, leagues, ladders, and other formats that give players clear reasons to register through Bounce.

Role Overview

We’re hiring a City Activation Lead to own and scale Bounce’s owned inventory strategy across our launch metros.

This person will be responsible for building the programs that help Bounce activate cities: clinics, camps, competitions and social events. The goal is to create a repeatable playbook where Bounce partners with clubs and coaches, fills courts with players, generates revenue, and builds demand in each market.

This is not a traditional events role. It is a city growth role. You will use programming as a lever to grow players, prove demand to clubs, create repeatable revenue, and build the foundation for future offerings.

What You’ll OwnOwned Inventory Strategy

You will design, launch, and optimize Bounce-owned programming formats across priority cities, including:

101: beginner-friendly intro clinics across pickleball, padel, and tennis
Racket Social: social-first play experiences for young professionals and active adults
Youth Clinics & Camps: junior programming that helps clubs reach parents and families
Leagues, ladders, round robins, and open play
Other formats that create repeat player engagement and marketplace liquidity

You’ll decide which formats to launch, where to launch them, how to price them, and how to measure success.

Club + Coach Partnerships

You will work with clubs and coaches to secure inventory and execute programs, including:

Negotiating court access, especially off-peak time
Structuring revenue-share or hybrid guarantee deals with clubs
Recruiting coaches and hosts to run sessions
Creating clear operating expectations for each program
Ensuring clubs see Bounce as a demand engine, not just a listing platform

City Launch Execution

You will help determine how owned inventory supports city activation. That means identifying where we need controlled programming to create demand, fill marketplace gaps, and give players a reason to register through Bounce.

You will work closely with the Product, Growth and CX teams to ensure that all programs are supported by:

Marketplace listings
City newsletters
Facebook group/community promotion
Social media content
Paid acquisition where appropriate
Post-event follow-up and retention flows

Unit Economics + Reporting

You will be responsible for making owned inventory economically viable.

You’ll track:

Registrations
Fill rate
Revenue per event
Court/coach/host costs
Gross margin
CAC payback
Repeat attendance
Referral behavior
Club satisfaction
Coach satisfaction

The goal is to understand which formats are worth scaling and which should be killed quickly.

What Success Looks Like in the First 90 Days

Launch the first repeatable 101 clinics in target markets
Secure 2–4 club partners for off-peak or rev-share inventory
Build a repeatable operating playbook for at least one owned format
Run multiple Bounce-branded sessions and track performance
Identify which formats have the strongest demand, margins, and repeat behavior
Build a pipeline of clubs/coaches interested in future programs
Create a simple weekly reporting system for owned inventory performance

Key Responsibilities

Build and manage Bounce’s owned inventory roadmap
Launch and operate recurring city programs
Negotiate court access and revenue-share structures with clubs
Recruit coaches, hosts, and local operators
Set pricing and capacity assumptions
Coordinate marketing support across newsletter, social, Facebook groups, and paid
Own event/session performance reporting
Improve program formats based on data and feedback
Build SOPs so owned inventory can scale beyond founder-led execution
Work cross-functionally with product, growth, and partnerships

Ideal Candidate

You may be a fit if you:

Have experience running local events, sports programming, fitness/community programming, or marketplace city launches
Are comfortable negotiating with venues, clubs, coaches, and local operators
Think like an operator and a growth person, not just an event planner
Can manage messy logistics while still focusing on unit economics
Are highly organized, resourceful, and hands-on
Understand how to create a great customer experience
Can build repeatable systems from manual early-stage experiments
Are comfortable owning outcomes, not just tasks

Bonus Points

Experience in early stage startups, particularly marketplaces
Experience in tennis, pickleball, padel, fitness, youth sports, or local recreation
Experience with ClassPass, ZogSports, Volo, Meetup-style communities, fitness studios, leagues, or local marketplace operations
Experience building programs for beginners, families, or young professionals
Comfort with paid acquisition, CRM, or community-driven growth
Existing relationships with racket sports clubs/coaches in NYC, Florida, Texas, or California

Why This Role Matters

Owned inventory is one of Bounce’s most important growth levers. It gives us something tangible to market, creates player registrations directly on Bounce, brings new players into partner clubs, gives coaches paid opportunities and future clients, and helps prove that Bounce can generate real demand.

Long term, this role helps build the foundation for Bounce to become more than a discovery marketplace. It helps Bounce become a platform that actively creates participation, owns recurring player demand, and powers new revenue through programs and partnerships.

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